Catch your limit and change to another species

The striper bite is awesome right now. My son and I are catching limits both morning and evening.

I see everybody catching stripers, both live and artificial, trollers, and spooners. The best bite is using live bait. If you can get out before light around 5 a.m. and hit points with sloping flats around 35 to 40 feet, like Koso, you can limit on hybrids and stripers before light or shortly thereafter.

Once the sun comes up, the fish move to deeper water but are still catchable. The trollers are having good luck this year because the stripers are high in the water column and eager to feed.

In year's past the stripers tend to stay free, close to the bottom, and trolling lures is very difficult to reach them. The best best bite now is within sight of the dam from George's Cove to the dam and from Thumb Point to Hand Cove. Look on any point or side of points starting in 40 feet of water and keep moving out sight, sagging until you find them.

The white bass and small bass are feeding all over the lake on this year's shad hatch. I see them in the main lake and half way up the creek arms. One very good spot is the big flat below 6B, past Fouts Marina. Small topwater plugs or spoons are the best bait to catch them.

It has come to my attention that an artificial guide on Norfork is advertising that August is the striper trophy month and that he releases all his fish. First of all, August is not just a trophy month on Norfork, you can catch a trophy anytime and any month. I have caught my share of big fish in August but none more than any other month.

Second, you cannot release a big fish in the summer months. They will die, and usually they are dead by the time they are landed. This is just plain false advertising. Arkansas Game and Fish is encouraging anglers to catch their limit and then change to another species.

If you catch three stripers this time of year and release them, two out of three will die. This is not me saying this. Research across the country has proven that 70 percent of all released stripers caught in August will die. This guide and all anglers who are releasing stripers are just killing our future.

Tom and Sean Reynolds guide out of Tracy Ferry Marina. You can reach them at www.stroutfitters.com.